Boko Haram jihadists have killed at least 10 local vigilantes in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Adamawa, a military and human rights source told AFP Monday, increasing the number of people killed in the region in recent days to 24.
The jihadists ambushed a group of vigilantes on patrol in Hong district near the border with Borno state, the jihadist group’s birthplace and stronghold, Amnesty International and a military officer said.
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“Boko Haram terrorists attacked the Kopre village in Hong at around 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Saturday, killing 10 Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) operatives and injuring unknown number of civilians,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorised to speak on the incident.
He said the militants launched the attack from a village in neighbouring Borno state.
Isa Sanusi, Amnesty’s Nigeria country director said: “Boko Haram laid ambush on vigilantes in Kopre on Saturday, killing 10 of the vigilantes who were on patrol in the area.”
A police spokesman in Adamawa confirmed the attack without giving a toll, saying security personnel had been deployed in the area.
It is the latest in a wave of assaults by the group in the region that officials say is witnessing a resurgence of Boko Haram attacks.
On Thursday, Boko Haram killed 14 farmers in Borno’s Gwoza district near the border with Cameroon not far from Hong, according to a local official.
Borno state governor Babagana Umara Zulum on Friday told Nigeria’s defence minister and military chiefs that Boko Haram and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) were entrenching themselves in Lake Chad islands, Sambisa forest and Mandara mountains on the border with Cameroon as a result of “military setbacks”.
Zulum lamented that the fightback by Niger, Chad and Cameroon against the jihadists has forced them to abandon their bases in the three countries and flee into Nigeria.
The militants have turned Lake Chad — straddling Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon — into a “breeding ground”, Zulum said in Borno’s capital Maiduguri.
The jihadist violence, which broke out in 2009 in Maiduguri, spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militants, who want to establish a Caliphate in the region.
The coalition has suffered setbacks in recent years following a military coup in Niger, which saw the new junta withdraw from the alliance, and Chad scaling back its participation in joint operations with Nigeria.
“The fallout of the partnership in fighting terror between Nigeria, Chad and Niger has changed the dynamics,” Amnesty’s Sanusi said.
AFP